Enrollment in the Dorchester Catholic schools, which had been falling for years, is now rising as a result of a decision by affluent Catholic business leaders to invest tens of millions of dollars refurbishing the schools, the Archdiocese of Boston said yesterday.A group of businesspeople, led by retired adman Jack Connors Jr., has raised $25 million toward the $67 million they are pledging to spend to consolidate, renovate, upgrade, and, in one instance, rebuild aging parish school buildings in Dorchester and Mattapan.
On the one hand, there's a question of whether this is really a viable model for saving Catholic schools. Surely raising funds on this scale is not easy, especially in other cities with much smaller Catholic populations than Boston.
On the other hand, maybe it shows how far a serious, concerted effort like the Boston Archdiocese's 2010 Initiative can go.
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